Jackie Mason

ARTICLES ABOUT JACKIE MASON BY DATE - PAGE 5

Comedian Jackie Mason and celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder have been named co-hosts of "Crossing the Line," a public-television talk show that will be sort of like "Crossfire" with more laughs. It will premiere April 15 in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Atlanta. "We'll be pioneers on the frontier of truth," Mason said, "which, by the way, I gather may be located somewhere along the Kansas-Missouri border."

It is hard enough to imagine a shoe store renovation costing $1 million (especially when the store's on Roosevelt Road), much less the Mayor planning to attend its Grand Reopening this week, but both are true of Chernin's Shoes' 90-year-old flagship store at 606 W. Roosevelt Rd. The remodeled store, which looks out on a street famed for cut-rate goods, features a 10-foot high waterfall and an 18-foot long Chicago Historical Wall depicting "Chicago...

"Jackie Mason: An Equal Opportunity Offender": The intriguing life story--rabbinical student to Catskills comic to celebrated monologuist--and remarkable comeback of the comic Jackie Mason is the topic of today's new episode of the Bravo cable channel's fine "South Bank Show," which offers in-depth profiles of people in the arts (9 p.m.). Interviewed are Mason's siblings, his longtime peers in comedy such as writer Larry Gelbart, and, of course, Mason himself for this revealing look at a complex man. Controversy has dogged Mason's career, from an alleged obscene gesture to Ed Sullivan to critical remarks of Frank Sinatra, but what is most striking is the undercurrent of anger and long-nurtured slights informing Mason's comedy and, even more so, his conversation.

Whatever salubrious effects the Democratic National Convention may be having on Chicago's coffers or the city's image, perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of this event have been the gangs of writers who churn out jokes for Jay Leno and David Letterman, and the joke tellers who populate the nation's comedy clubs and its cable television outposts. This convention, and the ensuing battle for the White House, offers a mother lode of material for those who toil in the ever-growing politics-as-entertainment mines.

My mother often cautioned me not to discuss politics, religion or sex. Sorry, Mom, but these three are the "warp and woof" of the human venture. There is no denying, certainly, that much pain and suffering are associated with and sometimes even caused by politics, religion and sex. But also there are the bright lights of humor. One very bright light is Jackie Mason in his current Chicago engagement. Mason's creative reflection on politics, religion and sex help us to realize our own humorous experiences in those areas.

Some time during a Jackie Mason show--maybe after a second or third visit, when you've memorized all the topical gags and ethnic jokes--it might be fun to plug up your ears and just watch the master in action. The Mason commentary on such subjects as Bill Clinton, O.J. Simpson, gentiles, Jews, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, fat people, black people, George Bush and Ann Landers is quick, sharp and sometimes provocative; but it wouldn't be nearly as effective if it didn't have the accompanying Mason moves.

More than Northwestern's football team goes into the holidays on a roll. "Father of the Bride Part II" opened a healthy No. 2 at the box office over the weekend, excellent news for alumna (Class of '93) Kimberly Williams. She returned as Steve Martin's daughter--the big role Williams played in the first "Father" film as an NU student. The campus reaction to that initial stardom? "New people suddenly wanted to be my friend," she recalled. Brother Jay is now enrolled at the Evanston school.

And so, there you are, in the back seat of a New York taxi, and the crazy cabbie is on a roll: ". . . And so, I may be thinking why Colin Powell is such a sensation. How does a guy become the hottest guy in America when no one knows what he does for a living? "He puts on a uniform and a pair of glasses and everybody says, `In this uniform, he's a genius.' "An idiot could have put on these same glasses and he could have been the genius. Nobody knows what he actually did or what he thinks.

Northwestern's football "miracle" isn't without a heart. Marching band leader emeritus John Paynter, who retired from active duty before this season after nearly 45 years directing Wildcat musicians, put on his uniform and traveled with the band for a road game this year--and, on the sidelines, was obliterated on one play with half the horn section by a flying wedge of players. Paynter, who escaped injury, has been awarded an honorary "game shirt" by coach Gary Barnett. Hola, Buenos Aires: Don't cry for Evita Peron, film lovers.

Even comedian Jackie Mason loved Laurie Friedman's T-shirts. The two met when Friedman was selling her creations in the Catskills. Mason agreed to be photographed wearing one of them and Friedman has incorporated the picture in her business cards and her flyers. It seems especially fitting, she says, because her husband, Kidders, loved Mason's Jewish sense of humor. It was her husband who had encouraged her to use her own Jewish sense of humor and create T-shirts with chubby cartoon-style dogs and bears and familiar Yiddish captions.